Edward Gierek

Edward Gierek (6 January 1913-29 July 2001) was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party from 20 December 1970 to 6 September 1980, succeeding Wladyslaw Gomulka and preceding Stanislaw Kania.

Biography
Edward Gierek was bornb in Porabka Nowy Sacz, Austrian Silesia, Austria-Hungary on 6 January 1913, and he emigrated with his mother to France in 1923, where he joined the French Communist Party. During World War II, he operated in Belgium among groups of Polish underground resistance fighters. In 1948, he returned to Silesia, now part of Poland, and was appointed to the Polish United Workers' Party Politburo in 1959. In 170, he succeeded Wladyslaw Gomulka as First Secretary. He sought ro calm popular discontent by increasing wages and introducing a popular style of government through travelling widely and listneing to complaints. Yet the substance of the regime and its policies remained unchanged. Most devastating was his heavy borrowing in precious hard currency, ostensibly to modernize industry and make it competitive, but in reality to keep the loss-making and ineffective economic system afloat. Burdening the country with long-term debt could at best be a short-term solution. When the inevitable happened and the economy worsened while drastic prrice increases were introduced, mass strikes began which led to the formation of Solidarity. In th eface of this overwhelming protest, Gierek was dismissed from office. His memoirs, containing an apologia for his policies, were entitled An Uninterrupted Decade (1990). He died in Cieszyn, Silesian Voivodeship in 2001.